Anhinga
A N H I N G A I love the clouds that drift across the brilliant blue sky, puffy and white and dreamy. There's nothing more peaceful than studying them, lying on your back in a grassy meadow, staring up at the sky. I love the warmth of the hearth, crackling in the fireplace after a long day. There's nothing more calming than sitting there, quiet, soaking in the feeling of family and peace and hope that life will always get better. I love the feeling of singing for a crowd, watching the audience's smiles light up the room. There's nothing more ethereal than weaving notes into an enchanting song, with your love at your side. Everything in this world is worth loving so deeply. It's just that most dragons fail to notice. Anhinga was created by Stardust for a couples contest. Her partner is Mirage (Luna-The-NightWing). Editing is not appreciated, even for spelling and grammar - the only exception would be categories. A P P E A R A N C E I like warm colors. They're soothing, calming, pleasing to the eye. Dark colors? Not so much. When wandering through a small rural town during a quiet evening, one might spot a tall, broad-shouldered MudWing, strolling through a field in the company of a SandWing. Her tail sweeps over the ground absently and her eyes are wide, trying to take in every bit of nature she can find. Her name is Anhinga, and she may not be beautiful on the surface, but she is far from normal on the inside. Sturdily built and well-muscled, Anhinga towers over other dragons of her age. Despite her size, though, she often moves in a gentle stance, her movements graceful and her posture relaxed. Her scales reflect light in an interesting way - instead of showing it in bright crescents, catching and forming it into fuzzy white highlights on her body. This gives her a soft, almost feathery appearance, creating a strangely ethereal-looking MudWing. Anhinga's mainscales and the ones on the top of her head are a shade of coffee brown, glowing with warm undertones of caramel throughout them, while the scales on the sides of her snout, the sides of her neck, and her front legs are a dark shade of hickory. Her overscales are a sort of sludgy brownish-gray, not a very appealing color. On the color spectrum, they fall somewhere between coffee and graphite. The spikes running down her back and the scales plating her wings are the same color, while her horns are a slightly darker shade. Light cloudy-gray underscales cover Anhinga's neck and underbelly, which could be mistaken for white at first glance. Her wing membranes are almost the same shade, but include a tad bit more of a khaki color, making them slightly darker than the aforementioned underscales. On top of her horns often curls a small, vaguely draconic figure - Anhinga's pet betta dragon, Hazel. She's usually asleep, her tiny slender form curled into a ball as her tan scales shine and her dark gray-blue sails flutter in a breeze. Anhinga takes very good care of Hazel, and despite the latter's pickiness, she's unflinchingly loyal to her owner. Anhinga has placid, doe-brown eyes, usually filled with a far-off look or fixating something with a gentle gaze. A small, diamond-shaped earring dangles from her left ear, carved from copper and accented with bronze. It may not look like much, but Anhinga holds on to it because it's a "diamond in the rough". Like her. P E R S O N A L I T Y It's the simple things that mean the most to me. Perhaps some dragons would say that sensitive souls are too delicate for this world. Bruise too easily, break down too quickly. Most souls have to be careful around them, to tread lightly when it comes to feelings. So they're cast away, even if they have ideas that will change everything, passed over for the outspoken, argumentative souls that promise they'll make a difference. Anhinga, really though, is exactly what the world needs. The first thing you'd notice about her is her dreaminess. She often drifts off, lost in her thoughts, these episodes characterized by glazed eyes, a stillness of her limbs, and a surprised reaction when someone "wakes her up". She usually finds it difficult to focus on corporeal or down-to-earth, and if something drags on for too long, you could find her in one of these detached states. A wild imagination is a phrase that describes Anhinga perfectly - she has a talent for imagining things vividly, and comes up with creative things almost 24/7. Her brain is constantly overflowing with ideas of everything from fantasy worlds to inventions that could make the continent a better place. However, this does have a downside: she often ends up conjuring terrifying images of death or destruction when she's nervous, having an ability to see down the best and the worst paths simultaneously. Anhinga's quietness is a refreshing awakening from most dragons' brash attitudes. She's not exactly shy, per se, but she will generally wait for others to start conversations instead of taking the initiative herself. Even then it does take a minute for her to warm up to them, although it's a very short time - speak a few sentences to her, and suddenly she'll have opened up and be chattering away. The MudWing could go on for hours about her interests; not everything intrigues her, but when something does, she'll get incredibly into it. So interested, in fact, that she sometimes ends up neglecting her own personal needs to pursue that thing. Often this is how she loses herself. She's very sensitive, often naming everything she comes upon, ranging from stuffed animals to raindrops. Anhinga gets oddly attached to inanimate objects and often feels sad or downcast when she loses a prized possession ('prized' meaning she had it for anywhere between years to minutes). However, her sensitivity also means that the slightest insult upsets her, and the smallest snark becomes something she'll dwell upon for hours. Conflict makes Anhinga incredibly uncomfortable and she'll go out of her way to avoid it. This is because of the value she places on emotions: logic or justice don't really matter to her. In the end, she always judges things on how it makes dragons feel, which often makes her seem irrational to others. The flip side of this, though, is the fact that she can read others' emotions exceedingly well and address them in just the right way. Strangely enough, though, she has trouble expressing her own feelings. When asked to talk about herself, Anhinga often freezes up or stutters, not knowing what to say. Most of her existence revolves around others: helping them and caring for them and making them feel happy. She's quite selfless and will usually sacrifice her own things for other dragons, but sometimes this means she burns herself out doing acts of "philanthropy". Anhinga is on a constant quest for justice in the world, but if she sees her personal morals violated, it hurts her right down to her core. Idealism is one of Anhinga's main character traits, her rosy outlook on life casting everything in a golden glow. She always tries to look on the bright side, sometimes to a fault, where she'll be unrealistically positive and be disappointed when the truth hits her. She's also, unfortunately, quite naive, and her childish tendencies means she's easily tricked by friends and evildoers alike. H I S T O R Y Where did Catfish go? Seemingly effortlessly, Anhinga and her constant companion flit from city to city. Spreading music to the world and joy to their hearts. They make it look so easy, being in love and being so completely happy. Once upon a time, though, Anhinga's life was far from this. Hatched in the southern side of the Mud Kingdom, Anhinga and her sibs were immediately thrown into a world plagued by the SandWing War of Succession. Right from their hatching, they knew nothing but war and bloodshed and military training. But it was their life, and perhaps they didn't love it, but they... just dealt with it. As all young dragonets should have. From a very early age, Anhinga developed an unusual hobby - she loved to sing. Granted, her sweet soprano voice captivated all who listened. In her free time she would often quietly mumble to herself lyrics or melodies she had improvised on the spot, and her brothers encouraged this. They loved to see their little sister happy, and indeed, singing was the thing that made Anhinga smile the most. Unfortunately, she had a case of stage fright, meaning she never sung to anyone outside their little family. Crawdad, their bigwings, Beetle, the cheerleader of the group, and Catfish, the mom friend, all took care of Anhinga, assuming almost parental roles in her life instead of just being "older brothers". She was much too sensitive for a soldier, always chasing butterflies or zoning out during training. So they shielded her, maybe even spoiling her slightly. She always got her way, her eyes always hidden from the terrible world around her and made to believe that everything was fine instead. By her brothers. Her overbearing, but amazing brothers. At the age of four, their little family was thrown into turmoil as they entered their first battle. Of course, the little MudWing was slightly apprehensive. She didn't completely understand it yet, but the idea of going "stab-stab-stab and you're dead" did not appeal to her at all. However, she let herself be dragged along by her sibs - who, on that note, were oddly excited to fight for their tribe. Until they actually entered the battlefield. The violence being waged around Anhinga terrified her like nothing had ever done so before. She hovered in place, paralyzed like she had been turned to stone. Her brothers maneuvered and dove and pulled her out of harm's way, again and again and again. And still she was frozen, her brain unable to function and her limbs seized up. Miraculously, after the four-hour battle, none of them were hurt terribly - Anhinga's wounds, though, were more internal than physical. And so they grew up. Fighting, training, learning a number of things about everything from the world around them to how to hold a spear correctly. Anhinga never completely got used to the idea of battle, and when summoned to one, she would just dart through the melee trying to avoid being killed. A soldier whose talons reflexively covered her face at the sight of blood was a strange sight indeed, but she flew under the radar for most of her life, which she liked. Not having friends just meant more opportunities to go flying alone, or to spend time and bond even more with her sibs. Despite her slightly odd life as compared to other dragons, Anhinga lived it well. It progressed in a predictable fashion - fight, train, sleep, train, sleep some more. Although it wasn't really her thing, Anhinga didn't exactly dislike it. After all, she had never known anything else. All was well - until it happened. It was the fateful battle with the IceWings, the one that the dragonets of destiny happened to stumble upon. Anhinga wouldn't be able to tell you what happened - except for the fact that afterwards, Crawdad and Beetle lay on the ground limply, their bodies slashed with countless scratches and their limbs blasted with frostbite. Two of her three sibs. Dead. After that, neither Anhinga nor Catfish were ever the same. For the first time, Anhinga didn't want to sing - she didn't talk much at all, in fact. Catfish tried his best to protect his little sister, but the poor child had never had so much pressure weighing on his frail shoulders before. It had always been Crawdad and Beetle doing most of the grunt work, with the two younger ones tagging along. With both his older brothers gone, Catfish became neurotic and overprotective, constantly worrying about and hovering over Anhinga. She was still quite oblivious about the world around her, but this time it was for a very different reason - having retreated inside a metaphorical "shell" to grieve alone, everything became dulled and numb. The tensions grew between the two - until one day, they disappeared. And so did Catfish. It was yet another battle, this time with the SandWings. Anhinga was doing her usual thing - zigzagging wildly through the air just trying to stay alive. In her panic, she lost sight of Catfish, and when she turned back to find him, he was gone. She flapped through the air, just barely avoiding death by stabbing countless times, sweeping her gaze frantically over the blood and suffering trying to find Catfish. Try as she might, though, Catfish was nowhere to be found. After the battle, the SeaWings turned tail and fled. The MudWing troops alighted wearily on the ground, and so did Anhinga, looking horror-struck. Most of the other dragons began flying homeward, but Anhinga couldn't move. And there she stood, amidst a field of pain. Lost, confused, and so utterly alone. Night fell, dawn broke. Anhinga wandered blankly around the heaps of bodies and the puddles of blood, searching aimlessly for the lost piece of her life. That is, until Mirage found her. A shadow fell over the small MudWing, and she turned to see a dragon silhouetted on the hill above her. A pretty female SandWing, carrying a pair of drums on her back. Wordlessly, she held out a talon. And Anhinga took it. She opened up to the SandWing - her name was Mirage, she said. They swapped stories, and Anhinga felt herself figuring out her new companion. Oddly enough, their personalities seemed to be opposing forces, but they just... meshed together. The soft-spoken one and the strong-willed one. Separate, yet one. They wandered together for quite a time. Rambling throughout the southern half of Pyrrhia. Anhinga didn't feel quite right without her brothers, though, and it still felt odd to journey with a different dragon. Everything was dulled, numb. She was just going through the motions. Eventually Anhinga spilled what had happened to her, and she finally broke down in tears about the loss of her brothers. Mirage comforted her as best as she could, and Anhinga, being trusting, decided to stay with her. After all, she had nowhere else to go. The first night, the two wanderers camped together under the shadow of a ridge near the Diamond Spray Delta. Mirage was struggling with insomnia, and Anhinga felt compelled to do something she had never done before. Why, she wouldn't be able to tell you, but something about the SandWing's rough exterior and warm-hearted interior just appealed to her greatly. She sang to her. It wasn't anything special, just a song her brothers used to chorus together for fun back home. Strangely enough, Anhinga wasn't the least bit embarrassed. She just let the instinct take over. Before drifting off, the last thing Mirage murmured was "you should sing with me." And Anhinga replied with an even softer "I'd love to." In the following months, the two wandered from town to town, Anhinga singing and Mirage drumming for money. She even rescued her future pet betta dragon, Hazel, from an auction. Yes, the two were quite an odd sight to see, and the idea of their music sounded odd at first as well - but somehow, they made it work. The sound of Anhinga's melodic voice interweaving with Mirage's rhythmic beats complemented each strangely and beautifully. Just like the dragonesses themselves. It started out as a simple quest for riches. Anhinga needed money desperately - to set a steady living for herself, but more importantly, to muster a search party for Catfish. However, that passion gradually morphed into... something else, and she found herself singing for a different reason. As they journeyed together, Anhinga felt herself falling for the way Mirage's eyes lit up whenever they performed together. Falling for how she acted rough and hardy, but delighted at something as simple as fireflies or waterfalls. Falling for when they soared through the clouds together on the way to their next performance and how she beckoned Anhinga excitedly to whatever lay ahead. But most of all, falling for when she laid her head on her shoulder while sitting at a blazing hearth at night. How the silence between them was both irrelevant and comforting. How she smiled and laughed and moved and argued and everything else about her. But the problem is that Anhinga doesn't know if she feels the same way. They're still moving around today, singing their hearts out while keeping their closest feelings hidden. Each one of them deeply in love with the other, but too afraid to admit it. R E L A T I O N S H I P S She's my closest... friend. Crawdad, Beetle, and Catfish Anhinga's brothers were always there for her, taking care of her and supporting everything she did - almost to a fault. It's possible that she was slightly spoiled by them, but she loved them so much, and she nearly shattered when the older two died, and again later, when Catfish disappeared. She mourns their loss greatly, but hopes to see them again when she dies too. Anhinga tells herself that she'll scrounge up enough money to search for Catfish, but deep down, she knows he's gone. She just can't force herself to accept it. Mirage It began as friendship. It's become love. The two dragonesses have been traveling together for almost a year now, and although it might be an odd sight to see, Anhinga revels in their freedom and their bond. Making music with Mirage has been the highlight of Anhinga's life, and she truly hopes it never ends. While they might have been wary of each other at first, they're close friends now - scratch that, even more than friends. Anhinga harbors a massive crush on Mirage, but is too afraid to tell her lest her hopes be crushed. Little does she know that the feelings are returned. T R I V I A Hm, I guess I'm weird. I suppose everybody else is too, though. *fiddles with her talons a lot *likes softer, peaceful music *loves hiking and all things nature, especially landscapes *has a sketchbook where she keeps rough drafts of songs and lyrics **draws in it too sometimes, but those pages look horrible *biased toward the colors gold and cream *favorite city she's visited is a small rural town near the northern part of the Sand Kingdom **totally plays with childish things when she's alone *sucks at lying *loves to bake, but is pretty much terrible at it *can identify a scary amount of bird calls *gets really excited about holidays and depressed when they end *terrible at any physical activity **trips a lot *believes in an afterlife *used to eat meat, but after adopting Hazel, became a vegetarian **the concept of betta dragons was created by reverb *generally packs lightly and carries her belongings around in a satchel, but holds an unhealthy collection of stuffed animals inside that bag *twitches when nervous *weirdly skilled at finding the perfect gift for someone *you know what Catfish was probably taken prisoner but idk G A L L E R Y Ooh, look, an anhinga. The bird, not me. StardustLesbianMudWing.png|luna (please use when drawing her!) DignityBettaDragonAuction18 - ReverbtheDragon.png|hazel (reverb) Category:Characters Category:Females Category:MudWings Category:Occupation (Performer) Category:LGBT+ Category:Content (Stardust the IceWing-RainWing)